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“Okay, fine,” I say, rolling my eyes.

I hit the button and wait, listening as the line rings. She doesn’t pick up, and I set the phone down, but the second I do, it lights up. She’s calling back.

I answer. “Hey, Mom.”

“Hey, honey, are you at the ranch?”

“Yeah, Sabrina just told me her news.”

I can tell Mom is on the verge of happy tears again. “Isn’t it exciting. Maybe I’ll hop on a plane tonight and bring Hugh down there. Or, oh, I know, you could both come up next weekend. Bring Coen and the man you’re pretending you don’t like, Serena.”

“Not pretending anymore.” I shrug.

“Oh good, maybe you can stop moping around,” she says, not unkindly.

“I was not moping,” I interject.

“Yeah, you were,” Sabrina mouths. Then, louder, “Hey, Mom, Serena has something to tell you, too.”

“Are you pregnant, too?”

“No, I am not,” I half-shout.

“Then…what?” she presses.

I glance up at Sabrina, unsure where to even start. My mind runs through everything that’s happened since the beginning of summer. It’s hard to wrap up everything in a few sentences, not when it includes Jamie, too. I’m not sure I recognize myself anymore, but not in a bad way. No, I took a risk, I made a move, and somehow, by some trick of fate, it worked.

I couldn’t have done any of it without Jamie. He’d say differently, I know that.

He’d tell me I could do it all on my own. But that’s why I know he’s the one I want by my side.

“Well,” I say, “you know how I always wanted to pursue music?”

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

JAMIE

We go into the yard. Coen grabs his sunglasses from the table on the way out. I know him; he’s hiding behind them.

I pause just off the porch. He jerks his head, walking around the side to the spit of land between the house and the barn. There, he stops, hands on his hips, and looks out over the back field. I wait, letting him think. He doesn’t speak.

“You gonna say something to me?” I ask finally.

He shrugs. “I can.”

“Okay, go right ahead.”

He taps his glasses down, just far enough to look at me over them. “You know I don’t like her going into the industry.”

“I don’t, either,” I say. “But she’s got an advantage over you and me.”

“What’s that?”

I gesture between us. “You and me. People aren’t gonna try and fuck her over, she’s got some weight behind her. From both of us.”

He thinks, jaw working. “That’s true.”

“So what’s the problem?”